Stygian Might Be My Favorite Of The Pillars Of Equestria And It's Always Made Me Sad That He Wasn't Used

Stygian might be my favorite of the Pillars of Equestria and it's always made me sad that he wasn't used more in the show. So I decided to team up with my new friend Orin who's taken the time to make a bunch of amazing Pillar redesigns (same person I made this Starswirl animation rig for as a gift) that i'll be incorporating into my future animation project simply titled the "Tree of Harmony AU" at the moment until I can come up with a better name. The Pillars are very important characters to Harmony's story so I wanna do them justice. Listed below is some context for these sketches provided by my friend Orin and some written bits from myself. This is a Stygian who's been separated from the Pony of Shadows for some time, but is now dealing with the consequences of dark magic. I've had so much fun throwing ideas back and forth for this AU and I can't wait to share more in the near future.

The Pony of Shadows is not so easily purged, even with the combined strength of the past and present Elements of Harmony. A fragment of the shadow lives on in Stygian, inextricably bound to him, but small enough that it can no longer influence him. He has abilities superficially similar to King Sombra's, albeit on a much smaller scale, and definitely needs practice before he can comfortably wield this new strength.

The lingering dark magic corruption from Stygian's time with the shadow is visible on different parts of his body, mainly his eyes when using magic, some discoloration on the inside of his mouth and tongue, and his magic color.

As Stygian exerts better control of the fragment of shadow still attached to him, he eventually gains the ability to "Shadow Walk" or travel between shadows. This temporary form makes him look eerily similar to the Pony of Shadows. Pretty spooky.

Princess Luna ends up becoming Stygian's new mentor to help him gain better control of his magic corruption since she has direct experience with dark magic when she turned into Nightmare Moon.

Stygian's special talent is writing. His autobiography, Me and My Shadow, was an instant hit not just because he's a pony from a time long passed, but because he's a genuine wordsmith.  Stygian redesign by Orin331